The First Slovenian Physician Eleonora Jenko Groyer, MD (1879 – 1959)

Abstract

Eleonora Jenko (1879-1959), married Groyer from the year 1907, was promoted as the first Slovenian physician at the Women's Medical Institute in St. Peterburg on February 14, 1907. She studied in Russia, because her parents felt sympathetic towards Russian nation, and because women in Austro-Hungarian Empire were not allowed to continue their education at Gymnasiums or at the Universities. Her obtained diploma could not be nostrified in AustroHungarian Empire; she only received the recognition of its equivalency. She could only perform her professional medical work in the former region of Kranjska (Krain) and at the Austrian coast (Küstenland). She was the first female physician who opened an independent medical practice in Opatija. At the beginning of the Great War she returned to Ljubljana and practiced as a physician in Grosuplje. She was not entitled to sign her name as a Doctor, as her diploma has not yet been nostrified. In order to nostrificate her diploma in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes she had to take the exams in Pharmacology and Forensic Medicine at the Zagreb Medical Faculty. On June 15, 1921 she was promoted again, and the same year she opened her medical practice as the first female physician in Ljubljana. She worked her whole life as an independent physician, as all her applications for the public office were rejected.